Combining LDPC Codes, M-QAM Modulations,
and IFDMA Multiple-Access to Achieve 5G
Requirements
Andrs Leonardo Ortega-Ortega, Jack Fernando Bravo-Torres
GITEL (Grupo de Investigacin en Telecomunicaciones y Telemtica)
Universidad Politcnica Salesiana
Cuenca, Ecuador
{aortega, jbravo}@ups.edu.ec
Abstract In this paper we explore the advantage of
combining M-QAM modulations, LDPC codes, and IFDMA multi-
access techniques in order to increase the capacity of the system,
reduce the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) and to improve
the BER performance. The simulation results show that our
proposal provides better performance, even allowing significant
reductions, of about 1 dB, in the PARP of the high-level
modulation schemes, such as 64-QAM. In addition, the spectral
efficiency and BER, using LDPC codes (FEC), provides a
considerable advantage and low complexity respect to traditional
systems.
KeywordsLDPC-IFDMA; PAPR; Soft Decision; Multiple-
Access; 5G; LUT.
I. INTRODUCTION
The development of the new 5G wireless communications
systems imposes more demanding challenges to support the
expected increase in the mobile data volume, higher data rates
(up to three orders of magnitude with respect to long-term
evolution (LTE) systems), lower latency, higher energy
efficiency, and scalability and flexibility of the network [1].
Achieving these more stringent requirements demand, among
other things, more efficient modulation, codification, and
multiple access schemes.
M-QAM modulation schemes have been chosen by Long-
Terminal Evolution (LTE) to maximize network performance
with a limited amount of spectrum. Depending on the signal-to-
noise ratio (SNR), higher or lower constellations are used to
achieve higher spectral efficiencies. However, high bit error
rates (BER) of the M-QAM modulations can be restrictive to
cover the requirements of quality of service (QoS) of the
expected massive connections in 5G environments. To resolve
this problem, network codification has a critical role. Low-
Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes are becoming one of the
best options for new 5G systems. These codes allow
approaching the theoretical Shannon capacity with a reduced
complexity [2]. Moreover, several studies, using different rates
and packet lengths, show that LDPC codes have a better
performance than convolutional and turbo codes [3][4][5]. Thus,
the needs of a greater reliability and spectral efficiency for 5G
communications could be achieved through LDPC codes and
high order modulations, like M-QAM.
Another point to consider is the multi access scheme to
support massive connectivity. In current LTE mobile networks,
orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) is
used for the access system. However, its high peak-to-average-
power ratio (PAPR) make this technology is not appropriate for
5G requirements (PAPR 5dB) [6]. A high PARP is related to
need to use linear amplifiers with a large input backoff in order
to avoid distortions in the transmitted signal, the increase of the
bit error rates, and the presence of out-of-band radiation [7]. In
an environment with thousands of users and devices transmitting
and receiving information (such as expected for 5G systems), is
necessary to choose multiple access techniques that maintaining
a low PARP in order to obtain an energy efficiency and decrease
the interference among multiple connections. One such
technique, with a low PARP, is Interleaved Frequency Division
Multiple Access (IFDMA). This technique can be consider as a
special kind of a multi-carrier spread-spectrum scheme, which
assigns each user overlapping but mutually orthogonal
subcarriers. The increase in the number of subcarriers allows to
increase system capacity in function of amount information and
the number users. For this reason is necessary increase the
amount of femtocells resulting in an increase of Signal-
Interference-Noise-Ratio (SINR) [8] and PAPR levels.
In this article, we explore the advantage of combining M-QAM
modulations, LDPC codes, and IFDMA multi-access techniques
in order to increase the capacity of the system, reduce the peak-
to-average power ratio (PAPR) and to improve the BER
performance.
For this, we present several simulations experiments that
allow us to analyze the performance of our proposal in terms of
BER, capacity and PARP. The results shown a significant
increase in the system performance.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: section II
presents the architecture of our proposal. In the section III, we
will discuss the settings and the results of the experiments we
have carried out. Finally, Section IV contains a brief summary
of conclusions and the motivation of our ongoing work.
 II. SYSTEM OVERVIEW
Consider the scheme for 5G uplink showed in the Fig. 1.
Data from a binary source b[k] first pass through an Quasi-
Cyclic LDPC encoder [9] to obtain b[n] coded bits. Next, these
bits are mapped to a set of complex constellations points, using
M-QAM modulations and producing s[n] data symbols. Next,
these symbols are processed through IFDMA block. The
modulated signal is compressed in time and spread through
repetition of the compressed signal. Finally, it is shifted to a
frequency that depends on the user. In the rest of this section,
the LDPC coding scheme and IFDMA multiple access will be
discussed.
Fig. 1. LDPC-IFDMA scheme for 5G uplink.
A. LDPC codes Desing
The LDPC codes, proposed by Gallager in 1962, are a kind
of forward error correction codes (FEC). These codes
deliberately introduce redundancy (check bits) to produce a
codeword of n-bits for a message of k-bits. In the decodification
process, each one of the codewords (y) must to satisfy a set of
equations present in a decodification matrix, called parity-check
matrix (H). Thus, a codeword y is considered valid if satisfy the
equation 1.
= 0. (1)
Unlike other codes of this type, the H matrix of LDPC codes
contains only a very small number of non-zero entries. In this
way, its low density ensures low decoding complexity and a
minimum distance among codewords, which increase linearly
with the code length. Hence, to design LDPC codes, we need to
construct a sparse parity check matrix and then determining a
generator matrix to satisfy the equation 2.
= 0.
(2)
In addition to the matrix representation, LDPC codes can be
described using a graphical representation. A bipartite graph,
called Tanner graph [10][11], is used for this propose. This
allows LDPC codes can be decoded iteratively, using a relatively
low powered microprocessor by using lookup tables (LUT).
This process can be developed in two forms: hard-decision or
soft-decision. In the first case, the decoder makes the decision
based on the value of 1 or 0 of a single bit. In the second case,
the decoder is able to discriminate among a set of quantized
values between 0 and 1, allowing it to offer better performance
than hard-decision [10].
Soft-decision decoder is based on the idea of belief
propagation, which performing inference on graphical models.
Thus, a Sum-Product decoding algorithm (SPA) is applied and
the probabilities are expressed as log-likelihood ratios (LLR). In
our proposal, we use soft decision to the LDPC decoder, with a
LLR-SPA algorithm, according to model proposes in [12].
B. Capacity Analysis in LDPC codes
To calculate the LDPC capacity [2], we need to know the
mutual information. In our case, the number of users connected
to a group of base stations, where the information traffic and
consumption data is generated.
The mutual information equation is a function of entropy and
the conditional entropy given in equation:
( ; ) = H(X) H(X|Y)..
(3)
If the source bits are equally likely, at = 0.5, else, is
necessary to determinate the conditional probability ( | ) in
function the noise Gaussian system:
( | )=1 . (4)
Thus, the equation (6) can be replaced in the symbol entropy
equation ( ):
( )= + (1 p) .
(5)
On the other hand, the conditional symbol Entropy equation
( | ) can be determined by the following equation:
( | )= ( ) ( | ) .
(6)
where ( ) is the Symbol Entropy calculated in eq. (5).
C. IFDMA
Interleaved Frequency Division Multiple-Access is a kind
of multiple-carrier spread-spectrum scheme, which does the
discrimination of the users using frequency-division multiple-
access. IFDMA performs a blockwise transmission. Thus, for a
user i, Q symbols conformers a block, called IFDMA block.
To avoid inter-block interference, each block is preceded by
a guard interval ( ), whose length exceeds the maximum delay
experimented by the transmission channel. An IFDMA-symbol
is obtained by compressing, in the time, each of the Q-symbols,
from a symbol time ( ) to a chip time ( ), with a compression
factor of the signal equal to K. Next, the compressed signal is L-
fold repeated, with L K. Thus, an IFDMA block for one user 64-QAM); even, outperforming to uncoded low-level
consists of LQ chips of length as show in [13]. modulations as 8-QAM.
Finally, for each user , the transmission signal is constructed
with a shifting ( ) in the frequency domain. For this, we
applied the DFT-spread technique to the transmission signal
inserting a sequence of zeros. The result of this signal the IFFT
is applied as is shown in Fig. 1

III. SIMULATED EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS

In this section, we present the result of the simulation

experiments we have carried out to assess the benefits due the
combination of LDPC codes, M-QAM modulations, and
IFDMA multiple-access in the performance of the uplink in 5G
networks.
The simulation results and comparisons of the proposed Fig. 2. Block Diagram of the LDPC-coded M-QAM.
system were executed and analyzed by MATLAB. We defined
the LDPC codes construction using Mackay Neal method [14],
with code rate R=1/2. The Parity-Check Matrix H, has a length 0
10
(300x600) LDPC System, CodeRate = 1/2

(300,600). Look-up-Table (LUT) with Gray Code are using in 8QAMLDPC

16QAMLDPC

order to normalize the symbols = + according

32QAMLDPC
64QAMLDPC
8QAM Uncoded

to set value of energy used in M-QAM modulation function. The 1

10
16QAM Uncoded
32QAM Uncoded
64QAM Uncoded

normalized factor is = 1 . In our study, we use different

M values ranged from 8 to 64.
Several authors presents LDPC systems with Hard Decision
BER

2
10

(HD) using BPSK modulation [15]. Our proposed is represent

the LDPC with Soft Decision.
For the performance analysis, we looked at the following
3
10

metrics in order to keep the 5G requirements [8]:

Bit error rate, the ratio between the number of 10

5 0 5
Eb/N0(dB)
10 15 20

correctly decoded packets and the number of packets

sent by the sources.
Capacity, related to the mutual information and
entropy (see, section II).
Peak-to-average power ratio, related to the ratio
between the maximum power and the average power
of the complex passband signal.
A. BER LDPC and Capacity Analysis
Figure 2 is the base system we use to analyze the
performance of our proposal, in terms of BER and capacity. In
both cases, we analyze these metrics with respect to Eb/No.
In the Fig. 3, we compared the BER for different M-QAM
modulated signals, LDPC coded and uncoded. First, the
simulation results show that LDPC\M-QAM schemes allow a
gain of about 10 dB with respect to uncoded schemes, in all
cases. Furthermore, we can see that the use of LDPC codes
allows better performance of the high-level modulation (such as
Fig. 3. BER Analysis for LDPC/M-QAM codes and M-QAM uncoded.
Although, LDPC\8-QAM modulation is who gets the best
results, as discussed below, low-level modulations do not allow
higher performance with respect to capacity. This is one of the
mainly requirements for 5G. We need to have greater amount
of users connected to the network sharing information. From
the standpoint of mobile infrastructure, it is the base station
capacity to maintain connected many users.
On the other hand, the Fig. 4 show that the spectral efficiency
(capacity) [bits/symb] or mutual information is improved with
high-level modulations, even more with LDPC codes. All
modulated signals, coded or not, the amount of entropy
converges around 10 dB of Eb/No. However, for lower values
of Eb/No, capacity increases with higher level modulations,
being LDPC/64-QAM more effective versus other modulations.
Massive Connectivity requirements in 5G is to have greater
amount of users connected to the network sharing information.
From the standpoint of mobile infrastructure is the base station
capacity to maintain connected at many users.
 0
10
1 8QAM/LDPCIFDMA
8QAMLDPC 8QAM/uncodedIFDMA
16QAMLDPC 16QAM/LDPCIFDMA
0.9 16QAM/uncodedIFDMA
32QAMLDPC 32QAM/LDPCIFDMA
64QAMLDPC 32QAM/uncodedIFDMA
0.8 64QAM/LDPCIFDMA
8QAM Uncoded 64QAM/uncodedIFDMA
Spectral Efficiency [bit/symb]

0.7 16QAM Uncoded 10

CCDF Pr(PAPR>PAPR )
0
32QAM Uncoded
64QAM Uncoded
0.6

0.5
2
10
0.4

0.3

0.2
3
10
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5
0.1 PAPR0[dB] for 64QAM

0
5 0 5 10 15 20 Fig. 5. M-QAM PAPR Analysis for LDPC codes and uncoded.
Eb/N0(dB)

Fig. 4. Mutual Information Analysis with LDPC codes and uncoded.

B. PAPR Analysis
The previous analysis showed the benefits of using high-
level modulations (for instance, 64-QAM) to achieve high
spectral efficiency and, combined with LDPC codes to get a
lower BER than uncoded modulated signals. However, in order
to achieve a massive connectivity and avoid the interference
inter-cell in 5G systems, is necessary reduce the PAPR. In what
remains of this section, we will discuss the advantages of
integrating a PAPR reduction technique, called IFDMA-LDPC,
for the different modulation schemes analyze previously.
Figure 1 shows our LDPC/M-QAM/IFDMA scheme. The
simulation results are showed in the Fig. 5. The first
consideration is a CCDF analysis to 1%, getting interesting
results with high level modulation as 32QAM and 64QAM
modulations. The first case, the PAPR levels are 31/3.3dB with
LDPC and Uncoded respectively. In the same terms for the
second case, the PAPR levels are 4.5/5.6dB with LDPC and
Uncoded respectively. We can see that in the case of the 64-
QAM modulation exists an important reduction of the PARP
level of the LDPC coded version with respect to the Uncoded
scheme. This decrease is from about 1 dB, reaching values
below 5dB, which allow us to achieve the 5G requirements [16].
We can say that is a significant contribution for to support
5G environments with massive connectivity decreasing the
PAPR 5dB limit to PAPR=4.8dB using 64-QAM modulation.
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORKS
We have developed a novel system for uplink in 5G systems,
combining LDPC codes, high-level modulation (M-QAM), and
IFDMA with DFT spreading techniques for the multi-access
scheme. The experiment results show that, our proposal
improves the spectral efficiency, BER and PAPR, in order to
ensure massive connectivity in the network 5G.
Although the results are promising, we are currently
conducting studies where we consider the SINR level analysis
in function on the number of users and base stations in wireless
5G scenario. In addition, we are studying the implementation of
multidimensional modulations to improve the BER and
capacity in 64-QAM modulations, using Generalized
Frequency Division. Multiplexing (GFDM)[17].
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